Task Demands and Responses to Warnings

Abstract

The study addresses the question how the effort required to obtain task relevant information and the diagnostic value of a warning system affect responses to warnings in a signal detection task that is aided by a binary warning system. In a simulated production task participants had to decide whether to produce or not, based on the length of a rectangle that represented the temperature of raw material and on the output of a binary warning system. The experimental conditions differed in the contrast of the rectangle from the background and in the diagnostic value of the warning. Results showed non-optimal weighting of the warning information. Also, compliance with the warning was stronger when the additional information was more difficult to observe. The results demonstrate that task characteristics have intricate effects on the responses to warnings.